Today's News

INDEPENDENCE –– It’s too bad that game jerseys worn by the Grayson County girls’ basketball team do not have players’ names sewn onto the backs. It may take a game or two to get to know these ladies.

A gaggle of seniors, seven of them in fact, and most of them three-year regulars, are gone from the first and only regular season champion in Grayson County’s 19-year history. Suffice it to say there is a hole or two to be filled.

As Charles and Ruth Frangos walk through their home, Charles reaches over to turn on the light switch embraced by a squirrel cover and points out a squirrelly museum of figurines.

In a collection worth thousands of dollars, taxidermy squirrels deck the walls, crystal figurines stack the shelves of a curio cabinet, squirrel pictures adorn the walls of the kitchen and more than 300 stuffed, ceramic, porcelain and plastic squirrels cram the two six-foot bookshelves in the living room.

Before an audience of officials representing Galax, Carroll and Grayson at the Crossroads Institute, state senators William Wampler and Roscoe Reynolds and Del. Bill Carrico delivered the local and state economic forecast during last Tuesday’s legislative dinner.

Legislators were asked to provide feedback and input on the state budget for the next fiscal year.

Discussing the future economy, Reynolds admits that he is extremely worried and cautious, noting that 10 million jobs are at stake at automobile plants and the low gas prices are due to the extreme downturn.